Editorial: Re-examine how state imprisons criminals

Tuesday

Jul 28, 2009 at 12:01 AMJul 28, 2009 at 7:06 AM

One of the legacies Rod Blagojevich left Gov. Pat Quinn was an anemic state workforce, stressed and stretched to the limit in some departments. Perhaps nowhere are state employees more overworked, perhaps dangerously so given the stressful environment, than in the Illinois Department of Corrections. It’s time for a comprehensive re-examination and re-engineering of how the state imprisons people.

One of the legacies Rod Blagojevich left Gov. Pat Quinn was an anemic state workforce, stressed and stretched to the limit in some departments. In fact, Illinois has the lowest per capita number of state workers in the nation.

Perhaps nowhere are state employees more overworked, perhaps dangerously so given the stressful environment, than in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

State Journal-Register reporter Bruce Rushton recently detailed the effect of the low number of employees on the department’s overtime costs.

The state paid $67 million in overtime costs during the most recent fiscal year, with plumbers sometimes collecting six figures.

It’s time for a comprehensive re-examination and re-engineering of how the state imprisons people.

The solution is simple, according to the union representing prison workers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees: Hire more people.

“It’s simple math when you sit down and look at it,” said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 that represents prison workers.

That may sound self-serving, but the governor’s own Taxpayer Action Board, made up of a bipartisan group of business leaders, representatives from nonprofits and government budget experts, agrees.

The TAB report estimated the state could save $9 million per year if it hired 500 more employees. While it’s part of the solution, hiring the right number of employees doesn’t address the whole problem.

The state budget crisis, which has prompted Quinn to slash $125 million from the Department of Corrections’ budget, also has caused the governor to consider releasing non-violent offenders. Doing so will allow him to lay off more prison employees.

As a patchwork solution, releasing low-level offenders doesn’t necessarily increase crime rates nor does it mean the rate of prisoners offending again will increase, according to experts.

“It’s easy, it really is — it’s unbelievably easy. The politics get in the way of it. People just don’t understand the basic math here,” said James Austin, a prison consultant who was a sociologist for the Department of Corrections four decades ago.

But this kind of fix shouldn’t be used just to get Illinois past the hard times. The TAB report recommended more sweeping changes in sentencing laws and to the state’s parole system, including having those who commit drug and property crimes spend less time in prison. At the local level, Springfield recently gave police the discretion to issue tickets for marijuana possession instead of arresting them. That’s an example of smart and cost-effective lawmaking.

The U.S. Justice Department has found there is no correlation between sentence length and recidivism. The TAB report said locking more people up has not reduced crime. The state’s population has increased by 11 percent since 1970, but the number of inmates went up 600 percent. The crime rate increased from 468 incidents per 100,000 residents to 657 incidents per 100,000 people in 2000.

The state also should expand electronic monitoring programs for parolees, hire more parole officers and work with private organizations to establish education and job programs, TAB said. “By enacting these changes, the state could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars,” it concluded.

Locking criminals up makes us all feel good and helps legislators collect more votes at election time. But it’s long past time to balance the need to be tough on crime with a level of punishment we can afford.

State Journal-Register

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